~ Thoughts … deep and otherwise

A quick look at our 2016 political transformation

In the 2008 campaign for president of the United States, Democrat Barack Obama won 28 states to score an Electoral College victory, becoming the USA’s first black president. Four years later, he won by a slimmer margin — 26 states — to be re-elected to a second term. In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton won 20 states and lost the election to Republican Donald J. Trump.

Trump won the highest Electoral College total – 306 votes — for a Republican since 1988, when George H.W. Bush beat Democrat Michael Dukakis. The senior Bush collected 426 of the total 537 electoral votes.

In 2016, the heretofore impenetrable “blue wall” of Democratic solidarity was broken in three states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (and almost in Minnesota, too). In the final analysis, Trump could have won without Florida. (But he carried the Sunshine State as well.)

Democrats filled 60 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate in 2009. Starting in January 2017, they will park their carcasses in only 48 of those seats.

In 2009, Democrats occupied 257 (or 59 percent) of the 435 seats in the U.S. House. Starting in January 2017, that will drop to 194 seats.

Democrats controlled 29 of 50 governor’s offices in 2009. Now it will be 15.

In 2009, Democrats controlled 60 of the 99 state legislative chambers. (If Nebraska did not have a unicameral legislature, the total number of state House and Senate chambers would be 100.) Now and for at least the next two years, that number will be 30.

Republicans now have complete executive-legislative control in 25 states, Democrats in five states.

What does this at-a-glance picture say about the political legacy for Barack Obama? Looks to me like a near-majority of the nation’s voters already have started helping Trump to drain the swamp.

FOOTNOTES:
There are 3,143 counties in the United States.

Trump won 3,084 of them. Hillary Clinton won 57. (And contrary to what some cerebrally challenged pundits are saying, it was NOT the fault FOX News.)

New York state is divided into 62 counties. Trump won 46 of them. Clinton won 16.

Clinton won at the nation’s ballot boxes by approximately 1.5 million popular votes.

In the five counties that encompass New York City (the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Richmond), Clinton garnered well more than 2 million more popular votes than Trump. (She won four of these counties; he won Richmond.)
Therefore, these five counties alone more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire nation.

These five counties encompass 319 square miles. The land area of the United States covers 3,797,000 square miles.

When you have a nation that covers nearly 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to suggest that the votes of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election. Large and densely populated metro areas (New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.) do not and should not speak for the rest of our nation — any more than a bully should rule the playground.